Late Plains culture, composed of the
chronologically sequential Pelican Lake and Besant complexes, occupied
a core area consisting of Alberta and Saskatchewan south of the North
Saskatchewan River, southern Manitoba, most of Montana and North Dakota,
and portions of adjacent Wyoming, South Dakota and Ontario. Departing
from the current practice on the Plains, where the Pelican Lake complex
and sometimes the Besant complex are placed in a 'Middle Period', the
two complexes are assigned to Late Plains culture. Period V from A.D.
500 to European contact is generally referred to as Late Plains, for
example, but in this work becomes simply Plains culture. Such
nomenclature changes can cause understandable confusion but are
unavoidable given the national scope of the present work. The Pelican
Lake complex is more widely distributed than the Besant complex but as
this distribution is mainly based on a loosely defined projectile point
variety what the distribution actually means in cultural terms is a
problem. A more restricted distribution of the Besant complex centres
on the southern Prairie provinces and adjacent Montana and North Dakota
(Walde et al. 1995: Figure 2).
Vegetation provinces occupied by Late Plains culture were mainly the
Grassland and the Parkland but, in the case of the Pelican Lake complex,
also included marginal portions of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence and
Boreal Forest to the east and the Columbia-Montane Forest to the west
(McAndrews et al. 1987:
Plate 4).

A Late Plains Culture Fall Camp Scene

Following the successful
entrapment and killing of a herd of bison cows and their calves
at a pound or jump site at the foot of the hill in the
background, men help the women butcher and dry the meat before
spoilage sets in. Water in the bison paunch container in the
foreground will be heated with hot rocks in order to render
fat for pemmican production from broken bones along with the
marrow being extracted by the elderly woman. The attentive
dog with an injured foot has been tethered to a tipi by its
owner to keep it away from the kill site where there would be
danger of further injury from the other dogs gorging themselves
on the remains of the hunt. A young boy in the upper right
chases a thieving magpie away from the drying meat. The scene
is set in the Parklands in the fall when the need to amass
winter stores would have been critical and the bison in prime
condition.

(Painting produced by Vidéoanthrop Inc., Montréal,
under contract with the Canadian Museum of Civilization. The
painting was done by M. François Girard using sketches
and technical information compiled by M. Marc Laberge and the
author.)

As was the case with the cultural origins and descendants of Middle
Plains culture in Period III, a controversy exists relative to the
origin(s) of Late Plains culture. A commonly held view holds that
two archaeological traditions, called Napikwan and Tunaxa, gave
rise to different cultures who co-inhabited the Northern Plains
(Reeves 1970;
1983). A modification on the
foregoing would have the Pelican Lake complex replace the McKean
complex (Hanna) of Period III and share the Plains with the Besant
complex in Period IV only to be eventually replaced itself
(Dyck and Morlan: In
press). The scenario favoured here, like the one applied to
Middle Plains culture, is that a single cultural tradition and
not two different traditions was involved. This, in part, is
suggested by the stratigraphic record and the evidence from single
components where late Pelican Lake projectile points are found in
direct association with early Besant style points (e.g. Dyck and Morlan
1995;
Van Dyke and Head 1983).
It has been recently observed that "...we are beginning to question
even more strongly the idea that an archaeological complex, much
less the looser series grouping, can be defined by a single point
type" (Dyck and Morlan 1995:
405). Other aspects of Late Plains culture systems, such as subsistence
and settlement patterns, also exhibit clear continuities between the
Pelican Lake and Besant complexes. Such evidence favours the likelihood
of a single developing cultural tradition. Arguments for the
contemporaneity of the Pelican Lake and Besant complexes, exclusive of
the transition of the former into the latter, are seen as a product of
the time ranges inherent in the radiocarbon method compounded by
instances of poor sample context and contamination
(Morlan 1988;
Morlan et al. 1996). In the
scheme favoured here, the Pelican Lake complex is equated with the
first part of Late Plains culture with the Besant complex developing
directly out of the former. Similarly, the Avonlea complex of Period V
is considered a development out of Late Plains culture (Besant). In
this respect, Late Plains culture is regarded as an in place
development of a single cultural tradition with its ancestry rooted
in the Middle Plains culture of Period III and its descendants
represented by the Plains culture of Period V. Numerous stratified
sites, such as Walter Felt
(Kehoe 1974), Long Creek
(Wettlaufer and Mayer-Oakes
1960), Old
Women's Buffalo Jump
(Forbis 1962), Head-Smashed-In
Buffalo Jump
(Reeves 1978;
1983), Garratt
(Morgan 1979), and Sjovold
(Dyck and Morlan 1995),
suggest a cultural sequence involving a single tradition. It is
important to note, however, that what is here referred to as Late
Plains culture, like all of the other cultural constructs proposed
in these volumes, would have been composed of numerous independent
bands whose relationship to one another would have been increasingly
attenuated with distance.

Bison was the single most important food animal of Late Plains culture
peoples, as it was throughout the 12,000 years of Plains pre-European
history. There were, however, significant seasonal and regional
variations in the subsistence pattern. Adaptive flexibility is not
only a prerequisite for hunters but is particularly so when a number
of different vegetation provinces were occupied. These included
Grassland, Parkland, the Foothills of the Rocky Mountains, the margins
of the Boreal Forest and, at the beginning of Period IV, the Great
Lakes-St. Lawrence Forest. Such vegetation provinces, characterized by
distinctive plant assemblages, were not in a static relationship to one
another. For example, cooler and wetter summers similar to today
allowed the forests to encroach on the parklands and grasslands, a
process that only stabilized around 650 B.C. Pronghorn, white-tailed
and mule deer, elk, sheep, mountain goat, beaver, small game, fish,
and roots and berries would vary in importance relative to both
vegetation province and season. Meat would have accounted for the bulk
of the calories ingested by Plains people but humans are unable to
effectively metabolize Vitamin C from meat. Vitamin C or ascorbic acid
is an essential element of nutrition that could only be provided in
significant quantities by plants. Various dried berries or tubers like
bitterroot and wild parsley were likely the major sources of this
essential vitamin
(Aaberg 1983). Throughout
Period IV evidence in the form of boiling pits, hearths, mounds of
fire fractured rock, and bone mash indicate the increasing importance
of pemmican
(Reeves 1990). Pemmican was
produced by pounding dried bison meat, mixing it with fat rendered
from bones and marrow, and packing it into large bison bladder sacks.
Although the production of pemmican was a labour intensive activity,
it did provide a preserved food supply for winter sustenance as well
as a hedge against hunting failures. It would also have served as
dog food and dogs were the draft animals which permitted mobility,
an essential aspect of survival on the Plains.

Projectile point types have been used as the major device to
reconstruct Northern Plains culture history and, in this regard,
have been both a blessing and a curse. All 'types', whether
pertaining to projectile points, pottery vessels, or other artifact
categories, are abstractions subject to the limitations inherent in
both the classifications and the precision of the classifiers and,
as such, possess elements of both compartmental simplicity and
personal subjectivity. As a result, there is often a lack of
agreement with one persons' Pelican Lake point being anothers'
Besant point; particularly as point style trends are generally
continuous and grade into one another. Since much of archaeological
interpretation is based upon surface collected materials or is
excavated from sites with mixed cultural deposits, types can play
an important role as culture and time indicators. The uncritical
use of typology and unsystematic classifications, however, are
capable of producing cultural reconstructions that have little
basis in fact. While most archaeologists recognize the dangers
inherent in basing cultures upon point types such cultures still
characterize much of Plains culture history. The situation has
been further exacerbated by a tendency to rely upon projectile
point types alone for site placement in time and cultural
assignment. Such a procedure often ignores or minimizes the
remainder of the technology and the other systems of the culture
under consideration like settlement patterns and cosmology. The
Pelican Lake complex, for example, is largely based upon a wide
range of corner-notched projectile points; a weak crutch to rest
either a culture or a complex upon. Projectile points are
undoubtedly the most important single artifact category within
Late Plains culture but it is held that they should still be
viewed as only one element in a tool kit that itself is only part
of an archaeologically defined culture. Projectile point style
trends during Period IV involve a wide range of corner-notched
dartheads early in the sequence which develop into broad
side-notched forms. Although it is a matter of debate, it is
suggested here that the adoption of the bow and arrow weapon
system took place during Period IV. Likely adopted from Late
Western Shield culture people to the east or their immediate
ancestors, the bow is estimated to have appeared on the Plains
around 500 B.C. With the exception of projectile points,
stylistically diagnostic tools are rare, such as the notched
biface and uniface knife forms in the Pelican Lake complex
(Davis 1975) and the
preference at the same time for dorsally retouched end scrapers.
A continuity of the tool kit assemblage in Late Plains culture
and the scarcity of significant differences between the Pelican
Lake and Besant complexes supports the view of a single
developing technological tradition.

The earliest evidence of the bow and arrow on the Plains
indicates that it was used along with the spearthrower weapon
system. Many of the arrow points were manufactured from the
distinctive Knife River chert of North Dakota. An initial
appearance of the bow and arrow involving arrowheads
manufactured from a specific type of stone was a pattern
repeated further east with Late Great Lakes-St. Lawrence culture
(Onondaga chert) and Late Western Shield culture (Hudson Bay
Lowlands nodular chert) and even occurred west of the Plains
in the Canadian Plateau and the southern coast of British
Columbia (vitreous basalt). It is estimated that the bow and
arrow was first introduced to the Plains around 500 B.C. Some
archaeologists would argue for a much earlier appearance of
around 2,000 B.C.
(Dyck and Morlan 1995:
Tables 3.5 and 26.1). The problem is that distinguishing
arrowheads from dartheads is not a simple matter. While
metrical evidence can be used to demonstrate the impossibility
of hafting certain points to a wooden arrowshaft, certain small
and thin points could have been used as either darts or arrows.
Metrical evidence has not been solely relied upon to identify
the presence of the bow but rather a series of associated
phenomenon. These include the frequent initial association of
arrowheads with a distinctive stone type, the abrupt change
in projectile point metrical characteristics that permitted
hafting of stone points in wooden arrowshafts, a rather
lengthy period of association between dartheads and arrowheads,
and the timing of these events relative to the east to west
cline of the inferred diffusion route of the bow and arrow.
It has been necessary to discuss projectile point typology
as well as the introduction of the bow and arrow since, more
than anywhere else in Canada, projectile point styles have
been used to establish the culture history. Archaeological
reconstructions of Plains pre-European history are therefore
subject to both the strengths and the limitations of
projectile point stylistic trends and their relevance to what
actually took place in the past.

The adaptability of Late Plains culture subsistence is
reflected in the Pelican Lake complex occupation of the Long
Sault site on the Rainy River in Ontario where moose, beaver,
sturgeon, pickerel, and suckers represented the major food remains
(Arthurs 1986).
Harpooning large sturgeon from a bark canoe hardly fits the image
of a Plains culture hunter but adaptability was the basis of
survival for all hunting people and simple subsistence stereotypes
rarely stand up to close scrutiny. The extent of seasonal mobility
of hunting bands is also a difficult issue for archaeology to
address. For example, the Pelican Lake people who occupied the
Rainy River could have been mainly bison hunters who made seasonal
forays eastward to harvest the oil-rich sturgeon and other
resources as well as to trade. Given the proximity of the
grasslands and parklands and the mobility and portability provided
by watercraft, an eastward exploitation range of Late Plains
culture into Ontario is not surprising, particularly given a long
history of exploiting similar resource areas in adjacent
southeastern Manitoba
(Buchner 1979;
1982;
1982a). Identification of
the Pelican Lake complex at the Long Sault site is based on the
similarity of the tool kit to Pelican Lake complex sites in adjacent
southeastern Manitoba
(Buchner 1979: 42-45) and
its dissimilarity to the late Middle Shield culture tool kit
(Wright 1972;
1995), as well as other
lines of evidence. Despite the foregoing qualification, there can
be no denying that the increasing importance of communal bison
hunting techniques is the single most striking characteristic of
Late Plains culture. The increase in mass bison kills, beginning
with the Pelican Lake complex, has been attributed to an increase
in bison populations
(Dyck and Morlan: In press).
The impression that Pelican Lake complex campsites are more numerous
than their predecessors, however, probably reflects the weakly
defined nature of the complex where almost any corner-notched
projectile point qualifies for the cultural assignment. Increased
archaeological visibility of mass bison kills and the destruction
and burying of a more dispersed earlier archaeological record are
also factors that could lead to an erroneous impression of a
significant population increase at the beginning of Period IV. In
this respect, the speculation that improvement in methods of
communal hunting and pemmican production provided an economic
base for increased social complexity and elaboration of cultural
systems
(Reeves 1990) would not
appear to be entirely justified. There was some coalescence of
people during Period IV but insufficient to suggest an early
establishment of the full-blown historically documented social
system of the Northern Plains. The latter included very large
aggregations of people, representative of a number of bands,
during the communal bison hunt. Self-discipline in the name of
the common good was essential during the complex process of
manoeuvring bison herds into entrapment situations. Policing of
individual behaviour therefore became essential. Other
historically documented social systems were the existence of
status differences in the form of personal wealth and polygamy.
Processes leading to the historically documented pattern,
however, were undoubtedly incremental rather than abrupt.
Major cultural disruptions caused by the introduction of the
horse, the gun, and European diseases and trade to traditional
behaviour must also be considered when extrapolating from
European documentation to pre-European events.

Given the extent of Late Plains culture, it is not surprising
that there is an uneven distribution of certain cultural traits.
For example, pottery vessels are more common on easterly sites
that were closer to the eastern centres of pottery diffusion.
The same situation applies to the occurrence of Besant complex
burial mounds that are restricted to South Dakota and North
Dakota. Variability in the lands occupied by Late Plains culture
also assured that the settlement patterns were equally variable.
While stereotype settlements are represented by sites like
Head-Smashed-In
(Reeves 1978) or Old
Women's (Forbis 1962)
buffalo jumps such sites are actually rare. Nearly as
archaeologically visible as the foregoing impressive 'jump'
sites are other communal 'kill' sites where numbers of bison
were dispatched in pounds, surrounds, and in natural entrapment
features such as kettles and river and lake margins. The
generally excellent bone preservation on the Plains insures
that such sites, with their masses of bison bone, are readily
recognizable. Not nearly so apparent are the buried tent rings
and small campsites that would have been involved in a host of
activities such as lodge pole gathering, and berry and root
harvesting. Stone tent rings are certainly the most common
dwelling evidence. By 1,000 B.C. large winter camps with
different sized tipi ring are present. Some specialized sites
could attain exceptional dimensions and possess substantial
time depth. The Schmitt quarry and associated camp site in
Montana
(Davis 1987; Leslie B.
Davis, Montana State University: Personal communication and
examination), for example, covered more than 100 hectares and
was occupied intermittently for 1,000 years.

Another characteristic of Late Plains culture is the
relatively high frequency of exotic items. Early in Period
IV, Wyoming obsidian and Montana cherts are common,
particularly on the more westerly sites. Knife River Flint
from North Dakota is particularly frequent in the Besant
complex. Other exotic materials are represented by Olivella
and Dentalium shell beads from the Pacific Coast and even
one incidence of a British Columbia Fraser Canyon jadeite
adze. The rare native copper items have been attributed to
the Lake Superior region.

Relatively little is known of Late Plains culture cosmology.
There is evidence at the rock art site of Writing-On-Stone
in southern Alberta that these people were the first to use
the site as a sacred place where a shaman or an individual
with spiritual power could solicit supernatural powers
(Brink 1978). There is
also evidence of Late Plains culture participation in the
medicine wheel ceremonialism which began in Middle Plains
culture times
(Calder 1977). An
aspect of Late Plains culture cosmology, the significance of
which for the culture as a whole has been overemphasized,
was the appearance of burial mound ceremonialism in South
Dakota and North Dakota
(Neuman 1975). Even
though the influences responsible for the burial mounds
stemmed from Hopewell culture to the east many of the mound
features were of local origin. Burial mounds were not adopted
by the majority of Late Plains culture people and the features
are best viewed as a restricted middle Missouri River drainage
phenomena. Further to the west and north into southern Alberta
and Saskatchewan two burial pits containing multiple bundle
burials were provided with red ochre and a rich assortment of
offerings. The offerings included exotic items such as marine
shell beads and native copper. In one instance, a grave was
covered by a cobble cairn
(Brink and Baldwin 1988;
Walker 1982). Both of the
foregoing burials pertain to the early portion of Late Plains
culture and suggest corpse exposure on scaffolds preceded
interment. Indeed, the scarcity of burials and their absence
from the later portion of Late Plains culture, with the
exception of the eastern burial mounds, indicate that the
historically documented practices of leaving bodies on
scaffolds, in abandoned tipis, or otherwise exposed to the
elements, was already the common manner of treating the remains
of the deceased.

There has been an excessive emphasis on the impact of Hopewell
culture on the late portion of Late Plains culture. According
to the hypothesis of an occupation of the Northern Plains by
two contemporaneous but different cultures, the Besant complex
expanded into the Plains from the east at the expense of the
local Pelican Lake complex. The explanation for this westward
spread was the Besant complex's participation in the Hopewellian
Interaction Sphere and the need to assert economic control over
certain valuable resources such as the Yellowstone obsidian in
Wyoming, Knife River Flint in North Dakota, and bison products
(Reeves 1970: 173).
Economic driven imperialism is an inappropriate device for
explaining relationships between hunting societies. There is
only limited evidence of an exchange network with the Hopewell
communities to the east. On the contrary, there is more evidence
of Late Plains culture trade involvement with the Rocky
Mountains and the Pacific coast than with what is now the
midwestern United States. Plains items that do occur in the
midwest, such as obsidian and Knife River Flint, simply reflect
a continuation of trading patterns that were already well
established in Period III. Of course, probable eastward trade
in perishables such as bison robes and shields is impossible to
demonstrate. Regardless of the equivocal nature of the evidence,
it is still generally accepted by Plains archaeologists that the
Besant complex resulted from the fusion of the preceding Pelican
Lake complex and eastern Woodland influences
(Dyck 1983;
Kehoe and Kehoe 1968;
Reeves 1983).

A poorly understood relationship existed between Late Plains
culture and the Late Western Shield culture (Laurel) of the
Canadian Shield and environs. Pelican Lake complex people,
generally referred to as the Larter complex or phase in
Manitoba, once occupied large portions of southwestern
Northern Ontario, southeastern Manitoba and northern
Minnesota but abandoned the region due to a climatically
induced westward retreat of the Grassland with its associated
bison herds. The abandoned territory was eventually reoccupied
by westward expanding Late Western Shield culture people who
would even spread as far west as the Parklands. As both
cultures occupied the same sites in southeastern Manitoba,
the expansion into this region suggests there was probably
some push involved rather than being simply a matter of one
group occupying the abandoned territory of another. Late
Western Shield culture bands of the Rainy River region
possessed a relatively complex social organization and in
this respect differed from the simple band level organization
typical of their kinsmen to the east, north, and northwest.
The enhanced social complexity and greater population
densities of the Rainy River region appears to have been
based upon the harvesting and storage of wild rice. As
southeastern Manitoba was rich in wild rice beds this fact
could have been an important incentive for forest dwellers
to push further west.

Knife River Flint from North Dakota, also called chalcedony
or chert, is commonly reported from Late Western Shield
culture sites in the Rainy River region and Late Plains
culture artifacts, such as projectile points and probably
pottery (Kenyon 1971),
are also present. What Late Plains culture people received
in return is not particularly evident in the archaeological
record and may have involved perishable substances such as
parched wild rice and furs. Certainly the minor amounts of
copper would have been of eastern origin. Late Western
Shield (Laurel) culture pottery has been identified on Late
Plains culture sites
(Klimko 1985;
MacNeish and Capes 1958;
Meyer 1983) but the
plain bossed and coil constructed vessels involved are here
regarded as a local Late Plains culture pottery style.

On the western flank of the Northern Plains there is no clear
evidence of a Late Plains culture relationship with Late
Plateau culture people of the Canadian Plateau nor into the
Foothills of the Rocky Mountains north of the headwaters of
the Athabasca River. Obsidian from the interior of British
Columbia is present, as are occasional artifacts
characteristic of Plateau cultures, but generally such items
are not recovered from datable contexts. Some form of
relationship must have existed as indicated by the presence
of marine shell beads from the Pacific coast on Late Plains
culture sites but the extent of the trade is poorly known.

Evidence pertaining to human biology is limited to the burial
mounds of South Dakota and North Dakota
(Bass and Phenice 1975)
and from the single burial features from Saskatchewan and Alberta
(Brink and Baldwin 1988;
Walker 1982). This
evidence suggests Late Plains culture people were relatively
tall with well developed musculature but suffered from such
ailments as arthritis, periostitis, mastoiditis and even
possible instances of tertiary and cardiovascular syphilis.
Dental health was generally excellent until after 30 years
of age when excessive tooth wear resulted in periodontal
disease and abscesses with subsequent tooth loss. Since
inhumation was a waning cultural practice early in Late
Plains culture history the evidence required to understand
genetically determined population relationships and pathology
is likely to remain limited.

Using archaeological evidence to draw inferences on society
is always a risky procedure, fraught with the dangers of
creating undemonstrable scenarios. As all aspects of life, then
and now, possess an element of probability, however, speculation
concerning the most likely ways that past societies organized
themselves is a valid area of archaeological inquiry. During
Late Plains culture times, cultural elements that had appeared
in the preceding Period III, such as communal bison hunting and
pemmican production, were elaborated and would eventually form
the foundation of the cultural systems recorded by Europeans in
the 18th and 19th centuries of our era. The ascendency of the
bow and arrow over the spearthrower represents a technological
trend that had potential consequences for the practice of
warfare and thus social relations. During Period IV, the
systems associated with an increasing reliance on communal
bison hunting were already well in place. These included the
possible formation of multi-band or tribal gatherings of
large numbers of people, as well as dogs, that would have
required some form of policing during critical periods during
the hunt. Expanded pemmican production would also have provided
the economic foundation for increasing social complexity
including possible personal status and wealth differentiation.